Category short stories | JON F. MERZ • Official • Author / Actor / Producer

April 21, 2011 by Jon F. Merz

Amazon’s German Kindle Store

I’m thrilled that Amazon has now opened up its new German Kindle store – and already, my Lawson Vampire series is out and available for mass consumption. As of this morning, they had just about every Lawson adventure there, except for THE ENCHANTER, but I epxect that should be available shortly.

As someone making a significant income each month from my independently published titles on Amazon and Barnes&Noble, this latest news is fantastic. It’s yet another platform to sell ebooks on, and yet another market I can enter into and reach new fans. The books are still in English, of course, but given that there are many English-speaking Germans, I’m hoping to reach a majority of them and get them hooked on Lawson. And this, of course, helps also with the building of a global community ready to devour Lawson on the television as well.

Here’s the link to the full press release from Amazon.

April 12, 2011 by Jon F. Merz

Twilight Scam on Facebook

There’s a massive scam happening on Facebook right now involving a Twilight Breaking Dawn game. Do NOT click on it because it apparently hacks your account and attacks your friends. Worst of all, it opens you up to ridicule from people who see that you actually like the Twilight series. 🙂

The single best way to combat this threat is to read my Lawson Vampire series. Like, say, the latest novel in the series that goes back to the 1970s when Lawson and Zero are dispatched to Madagascar to track down a skeleton in the Council’s closet with roots running back to World War II. Its awesomeness will easily trump any Twilight scam and you can be proud that reading Lawson is like saying to the world, “I rock the casbah and so does Lawson.” In fact, you can grab THE ENCHANTER just by clicking the cover here—>

And here’s another way to show your pride on Facebook: grab this anti-Twilight scam banner and fly it proud! (just right click and “save as” or Mac users can Control + click to save)

Remember: I’m here to help. 🙂

in common sense / ebooks / gifts / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / writing 0 comments

April 1, 2011 by Jon F. Merz

EBook Sales for March 2011

I sold 3421 ebooks in March.

To say I’m thrilled would be an understatement. And if I thought February was great, well, March was even better. I saw a 46% jump in sales in March and it’s my goal now to realize that same sales increase with each succeeding month. Is it sustainable? I think it just might be. More people are flocking to ebooks and ereaders than ever before. And my numbers, as great as they are for me personally, are still a drop in a very, very big bucket. I still have hundreds of thousands of fans to introduce to Lawson. If I can be sure to introduce new Lawson adventures each month, retain readers from each book, and drive new readers to the series, I think it’s very, very possible to make good gains each month. We’ll see if I’m right.

The vast majority of my sales in March came from my Lawson vampire series. THE FIXER alone sold 953 copies on the US Amazon site. The other three novels all posted solid triple-digit sales and even the two novellas made it into triple digits. The Lawson short stories, while not as impressive sales-figures-wise, still managed to add several hundred dollars to my bottom line. And this next week will see the addition of a new Lawson novel, THE ENCHANTER (previously known as THE MADAGASCAR MATTER before it became a full-fledged novel) as well as a new novella titled THE SHEPHERD. I’m hoping that more and more people will find the series and really enjoy what I’m doing with it. Add to that the new redesign of THE FIXER website – which will be THE place for all things Lawson (including the TV series) and you have some very cool things happening right now.

For me, this new world of ebooks sales is extremely gratifying. I’m earning a very respectable wage on ebook sales (roughly $150 bucks each day) and I couldn’t be more pleased. I get a monthly check (net 60 days) which certainly makes things a lot easier to budget and plan for. I’d like to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has purchased ebooks over the last few months. I write for you and I hope you really have fun with Lawson.

Oh, and by the way, PREY is coming soon. It needed a bit more revision work, but it will be out within the next month.

in Build a Bestseller / ebooks / general / how I write / lawson / ninjutsu / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments

March 21, 2011March 21, 2011 by Jon F. Merz

Barry Eisler Snubs $500K Traditional Deal to Go Indie

Bestselling author Barry Eisler of the famed John Rain series of thrillers has just turned down a $500,000 traditional publishing deal with St. Martin’s Press in order to go the indie publishing route. He and Joe Konrath talk it out over a lengthy, but SO worth your time post over on Konrath’s Blog. The short of it is this: things are changing, traditional publishers are locking up right s and paying writers crap. So screw it and go indie. But check it out and then come on back. I’ll be here…

Good read, right? And I’m one of those traditional authors who has recently seen the light. For February, I made $3200 from ebook sales – the majority of it coming from my Lawson Vampire backlist and new adventures not available in print. For March, I’m on track to do even better. This isn’t flash-in-the-pan stuff. It’s not some marginal fringe movement (no matter how badly those whose livelihoods are tied to traditional publishing might wish you to believe).

This. Is. Real.

Ebooks aren’t going away. More ereaders are flooding the market at lower price points. And a reasonable price point on ebooks means they become “impulse buys” instead of drawn out financial decisions. Think about iTunes. 99 cents for a song? Easy buy. Click, click, click.

Is print dying? No. But people aren’t buying books like they used to. I’ve often said that my job is to deliver entertainment. I personally don’t really care how that entertainment gets delivered, just so long as it does. And with the plans I have in motion now (“In 3 weeks, everything changes…” <--mysterious side comment not associated with this post) that will be realized. More books, more control, less time to bring books to market, better ability to adapt to changing market conditions, and a consistent and expanding audience. Sounds like a winning combination to me.

in Build a Bestseller / common sense / ebooks / film/TV / how I write / lawson / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments

March 14, 2011 by Jon F. Merz

Enemy Mine: To Benefit Japan

Some of you know how much of a Japanophile I am when it comes to their culture and martial traditions. Needless to say, the events of last Friday have saddened me and simultaneously inspired me to want to do something to help the relief efforts. I was originally supposed to be over in Japan right now, but the universe had other ideas – fortunately.

I wrote ENEMY MINE over this past weekend and all proceeds from the sales of this story will go directly to agencies providing relief services to Japan during this terrible time. I’m hoping to sell a whole lot of copies – I just now put it up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but you can also order a .pdf and .epub version direct from me if you’d prefer to use Paypal. ENEMY MINE takes place immediately following THE KENSEI, so I hope you enjoy it as it sheds a little more light on a new villain Lawson is going to have to deal with sooner than later.

Also, please help spread the word about what I’m doing. Share it on Facebook, Tweet about it on Twitter. Post about it on a blog. The more sales, the better. And every little bit helps. I have friends in Japan directly affected by this tragedy; this one hits close to home. Thank you for your help and I hope you enjoy the story! Note: I’ll update this post with links when the story goes live at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com

in ebooks / lawson / ninjutsu / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / Uncategorized / vampires / writing 0 comments